1..I felt like my watercolor was challenging yet successful. I had some difficulties when choosing which color scheme would make the painting look the best. In my sketchbook I sketched out various colors schemes to see which colors looked the best together. At first I was planning on doing a blue tonality throughout the painting but once I made a sketch of that color scheme I concluded that those colors weren't the best suited for this landscape. SInce water colors could be very transparent I went over all the objects using the dry brush technique. This allowed for the colors to stand out a bit more. Moreover, it distinguished objects that were overlapping or close to each other as separate rather than blended. I simplified alot of the images in the original picture and by doing so it made the painting better;it made the objects more recognizable and neater. I made the painting more original by simplifying everything and by using unrealistic colors. Some restraints of this process is that it was hard to make the objects in the painting look realistic. Instead of attempting to make it look realistic i took a more abstract approach and because of that it made it successful. Controlling the amount of water to use was also a minor difficulty.
1. I think my portfolio is an accurate reflection of my development in this class. When i came into this class I had not taken a painting class previously so I wasn't really familiar with painting and it's various techniques. I struggled in the beginning of this class espeicially while doing watercolor. I wasn't famililar with watercolor and had difficulties which reflected itsself in my watercolor strawberries. I had used too much water in them which caused unwanted blending. As the semester moved on I created better pieces such as oil still life. I managed to make the fruits look realistic and I thought it was very successful. At the begining of this semester I didn't know that doing a wash underneath your painting would make it look better. I utilized this technique in my oil paint painting which is one of the reasons it was as successful as it was.
2. I describe my artistic style as simplistic with a few detailed areas. By doing this it draws the focus onto the detailed areas and makes them stand out more. I utilized this style in my oil paint landscape. I define success as an artist by asking myself if I would hang my work up in my house. If I wouldn't I would consider that painting as unsuccessful. The most rewarding thing in being an artist is putting ideas into visual form. Some important skills is to not overdo and involve too many things in your painting for it could make it very confusing to the audience. Some of the most significant things ive learned involve using colors all over the painting and not using them in only once throughout the canvas.
3. The least successful piece I feel was my hunderwasser. It had too many different patterns and there wasn't enough cohesion. There were too many different aspects including the different colors and the different textures. When i applied the glitter it didn't seem like it was appearing so i added more on and that seemed to overpower the painting. With the water involving overlapping waves it could get confusing if viewed for too much time. However, I feel like this painting had the most potential and that it captured creativity. To change it i would use a different color scheme with more cohesive colors. Id maybe use all nude colors and use black and white to add in any details. I would also simplify the background and draw in the focus all in the water.
7. The most successful medium I used in this semester would be oil paint. This is because the paint captured my aesthetic better than the other mediums. The palette knife make it able to created a smooth background and the paintbrushes helped smoothen it out even more. Moreover, the paintbrushes made it easier to blend colors together very well. In my Oil paint landscape the paintbrushes came in handy when creating the water and creating those highlights in it. The pallete knife also had the potential to create very nice textures. I used palette knife to create the snow in the mountain in the background which made the mountain look more distinguished from the sky. It also was able to create the texture found in the cherry blossoms which gave them that 3D feel to them. I also like how vibrant the colors in oil paint are and how they remained vibrant in the bottle aswell as when applied to the canvas.